Woodrow’s Sandwich Shop

Dreams do come true, but only when you take action on them in spite of your fears.

A good friend of mine and ex-coworker Kevin Kramer is the owner of a fairly new restaurant named Woodrow’s Sandwich Shop. The restaurant serves outstanding gourmet sandwiches that are good enough to make your toes curl. 😃 Just a few years ago, I remember Kevin and I chatting about businesses that we’d like to start. We were both at a point in our lives where it no longer made sense for us to work for another company. Deep down inside we both knew we had more to offer the world, and that now was now time to step out in the world and prove it.

Through a series of events, I began my photography journey just months before the restaurant we’d been working at together announced that they were shutting down. It was somewhat sad and alarming to most of the other employees we worked with, but Kevin and me, this was a sign that it was time to take our plunge into full time entrepreneurship.

Did we feel a little uncertain? Yes. Did we have a clear action plan about how we were going to pull it off? No. All we knew was that other people had done it successfully, other people are doing it successfully, and that if they could do it we could certainly do it too. We understood that it wouldn’t be easy, but the idea of working for someone else for another year would be even more difficult for us.

To this day I appreciate the conversations we had about taking the leap. Even though no one else has the power to make you take action on your dreams, it’s super motivating to be around people who are willing to go for them as well. Those short conversations we had kept us going, even in the face of fear and uncertainty.

Fast forward three years later to today, Kevin and I have thriving businesses and are happier than ever with the brave decisions we made. There have been ups and downs, and there will continue to be ups and downs, but such is life. What we now know is that we’re not made of glass, and that we can overcome any temporary obstacle that may come our way. More than anything we realize that even though money is important, the way we spend our time making it is as equally, if not more important than making it.

Fear and doubt are nothing but a set of potential scenarios that we replay in our thoughts over and over again. Confidence and bravery, the same. In order to grow into a new chapter in your life, it’s going benefit you more to replay the positive scenarios in your head more than the pestering “negative” scenarios. Thoughts are just thoughts, and we are free to choose the ones we spend more time with.

My advice to you would be to think about what you’re thinking about, spend more time thinking optimistically, and then act on those optimistic thoughts. Whether you do something you love, or something you hate, there will be failures and successes. The difference is when you succeed at something you hate, there’s no real reward in it, and it doesn’t necessarily motivate you to go to the next level. When you succeed at something you love, the rewards are extra sweet, and further motivates you to keep succeeding.

Believe in yourself and in the process, and suddenly the answers that you were looking for will appear out of nowhere. Your dreams are meant to be pursued, so bravely take the first step. You’ll never know how sweet your life can be unless you do.

Hope this added a little sunshine to your day, and put a little pep in your steps as you decide to walk the path to your dreams.